R&D was the genesis that launched Northern Electric from the sleepy Canadian branch plant to a publicly traded company with a market cap of more than $300B, $30B in sales, and 100,000 employees worldwide. The lessons learned from my Nortel experience... “Innovate or Die“

By John F. Tyson

9 - Making a Turn

"We foresaw the opportunity to once again spearhead a fundamental paradigm shift in telecommunications as we had done several times before. We had all the talent, the means, and the opportunity to do so. We let it pass. … While lower levels of the organization seemed impervious to the changes, I was feeling a distinct loss of longstanding coaches and friends, resulting in a loss of personal influence. They had been complementary to my values, skill set, and creative/eccentric personality."